“Gun extremists in several states have exploited the current Kroger policy by flaunting assault rifles as they shopped,” the senators wrote in their open letter to the Kroger CEO [full text below via wfsb.com]. “There is simply no reason why someone would need an AK-47 to purchase milk, bread, or other basic necessities at a grocery store.”

I guess they’ve read the The Bill of Needs. Anyway, more proof, if proof be needed, that there’s an orchestrated campaign to infringe upon Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.

Dear Mr. McMullen:

We write today to urge you to adopt a policy that would prohibit the open carry of firearms in your stores. In doing so, Kroger would be sending an important message about your commitment to the safety of your employees and customers. This would follow similar actions by other retailers, such as Chipotle, Sonic, Chili’s, Target, and most recently Panera Bread.

[ED: Chipotle, Sonic, Chili’s, Target and Panera Bread have not banned open carry from their businesses. They have “requested” that customers not carry firearms within their stores..]

As you know, gun extremists in several states have exploited the current Kroger policy by flaunting assault rifles as they shopped. These bizarre displays must be terrifying for Kroger employees and customers. There is simply no reason why someone would need an AK-47 to purchase milk, bread, or other basic necessities at a grocery store. However, the current Kroger policy allows for these demonstrations.

Kroger has a proud history as an innovator within the retail industry. Kroger changed the grocery business by establishing in-store bakeries and deciding to sell meats in the 1900s. These two improvements changed the way Americans shopped – not just in Kroger stores but in all grocery stores as they became commonplace. The company has an opportunity to again be a leader. A change by Kroger, the nation’s largest supermarket retailer, could have a similar effect by setting a new customer-friendly standard that other supermarkets follow.

Again, we urge you to implement a new policy that would prevent the open carry of guns in your stores. Thank you in advance for your consideration and we look forward to your prompt response

Well, I sent an email to Kroger’s explaining that the senators’ bullying has just gotten them a new customer as long as they continue to have a policy of respecting the laws regarding civil liberties in the jurisdiction their stores are located in. Or is that too extreme also?

This should be further proof that those in favour of gun control do not respect individual rights. Not content with their wholesale contempt for the Second Amendment these individuals are now showing a blatant disregard for the property rights of others by attempting to strong arm them into compliance. The property owners have broken no laws, but are ‘guilty’ of rejecting the demands of those who would strip rights from others.

@Ralph. It wasn’t the OCTards I am thanking. I know you know this, and IANAL, so correct me as you see fit,

but for the sake of the OCD OCTards who will jump up and down and go SEE SEE WE DID IT!!! because Ralph said so…

It was the dimwit judge that used the “well you can open carry so you don’t need to concealed carry” argument on the first go round for Peruta, to deny him a permit on the basis of “self-defense”.

The Democrats in Sacramento passed the Open Carry ban coincidentally shortly after, thanks to the Grampas with OC in Starbucks, not in reaction to Peruta lawsuit.

None of that was planned by the OC Tards.

In fact, it was the CA versions of Chipotle Ninjas that got OC Long banned, very quickly after they started parading down the beach in San Diego, ARs in low ready, to protest the OC handgun ban.

I recall the weight of the ruling on Peruta cited wasn’t about whether OC carry was there or not- that made it obvious, but in the end- please confirm if you agree:

It was whether the restrictions put upon permitting, by SD Sheriff Gore, amounted to a ban, which was unconstitutional, and it was the patient strategic lawyering by Gura, that waited for citable precedent, that narrowly applied, would create the unassailable legal argument, that allowed Judge O’Scanlainn to masterfully forge his decision, building on McDonald, Heller, and the various legal scholar studies of the Founders intent, as found in State Constitutions, to validate the thinking according to analysis of language of the same time. And that same language, and the unreasonable restrictions of the DC Council, should trigger a reaction from the Palmer judge, if his citing the Peruta case in his decision indicates the same thought process.

@ Ralph, and granted, to your point – Peruta would not have been nearly as strong a case, and perhaps not even made it past the 9th, without the happy circumstance of a dimwit judge and dimwit legislators.

But none of that was foreseen by OCTards, nor coordinated-
in fact, they blew up OC Long when it was completely un-necessary to do so…

“. . . Again, we urge you to implement a new policy that would prevent the open carry of guns in your stores. Thank you in advance for your consideration and we look forward to your prompt response”
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Again, we urge you to implement a new policy that would prevent the open carry of guns in your stores BY HONEST, LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS. CRIMINALS, HOWEVER, SHOULD BE WELCOME TO CARRY THE IMPLEMENTS OF THEIR TRADE WITHOUT SUCH RESTRICTIONS. Thank you in advance for your consideration and we look forward to your prompt response
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There. Fixed it for ‘ya!
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Some Sonic’s have a sort of picnic area with one of their menus/speakers nearby so you can sit down and order food. Of course, you would still be outside, and here in Houston, eating outside is only advised during the few short weeks of winter, or if large amounts of alcohol are offered.

Diane “The Crypt Keeper” Fienslime is never gonna die, she will just have her consciousness uploaded to another DiFi Bot.

“establishing in-store bakeries”
Seriously though, I was just talkin to my wife about how as a kid ,during the 90s, I loved going to the store and getting a loaf of fresh hot bread out of that giant rolling bread container.

“As you know, gun extremists in several states have exploited the current Kroger policy”
Oh you know, that policy of following all local and state laws? Damn those dastardly law things, keeping you from just outright doing whatever the fuck you want in the name of “public safety”

MDA and Authoritarian Politicians: Is there not some other grocery store you can shop at besides Kroger? In how many towns is Kroger the ONLY shoppe in Ye Olde Towne?

What is this obsession you have that everybody be forced to play their own private game by your rules? What’s wrong with “if you don’t like Kroger’s policy or the folks that shop there…don’t shop there!”

In other words…mind your own business and leave others alone. Used to be words to live by, but apparently, being a bossy, controlling bunch of whiners somehow bubbled up to take precedence.

Shop where you want. If you WANT to go into Kroger’s, you are entering with full knowledge of what you might see there. Really. You sound like a bunch of losers that went into a well marked and labeled porn theater then acted SHOCKED at what you saw inside.

“In other words…mind your own business and leave others alone. Used to be words to live by, but apparently, being a bossy, controlling bunch of whiners somehow bubbled up to take precedence.
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You are asking the impossible, JR.
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The species “Liberal-us Progress-EVIL-us” as a whole, along with their followers, The Sheeple-People, are genetically UNABLE to control their busy-body urges. It is one of the identifying features of the species.
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Some researchers have concluded that a good street mugging or late-night/early morning violent home invasion may cause a genetic mutation that induces them to find something better to do, but others dispute those findings.

Three Senators, two from a state that doesn’t even host any Kroger stores. Obviously, three out of 100 in no way represents any kind of official “sense of the Senate” . Basically, these three buffoons are using their titles as Senators in order to promote a purely personal interest; the guys from CT can’t even play like they are indirectly serving their constituents’ interests, since they have no constituents that shop at Kroger. Where I come from, a public official who uses his title to promote a personal interest, even that of a different person, has committed an ethical and legal violation and could lose his office. Is that not a problem in the US Senate?

Aha–Yes, I guess so. OTOH, like I said, these three (3) are hardly acting as representatives of the whole Senate. Funny, too, the only Senators on board with this are from areas where there are either no Krogers or no open carry. In other words, from areas where they don’t have to worry about voter blowback if Kroger DID change its policy. Hope the Kroger pooh-bahs are sharp enough to notice that.

Akshully the original intent was for senators, appointed by the state governments, to be in place to serve state interests. Turning them into super representatives did no one any favors by forcing them to have to pander to the bourgeoisie to get and keep their phony baloney jobs…

Senators should not be bullying private citizens just for observing local laws that have been ruled constitutional by SCOTUS. It’s none of their GD business what Kroger wants to do, as long as Kroger obeys the law. Surely the three esteemed senators can find something more useful to do with their time than badger private law abiding citizens.

…setting a new customer-friendly standard that other supermarkets follow

I haven’t heard any Kroger customers making any of these demands. And they’re still the largest grocery retailer in the country, so the customers obviously aren’t put off by the current “follow the local laws” policy.

Wow…
Ok so you mean the thousands spent on billboards, and the sheeple plastering their Facebook and Twitter hasn’t had an effect? This seems to be an act of desperation on the part of MDA.
So there is no open carry in CA of any kind, unless by permit. Same with CT. So basically some political yahoos from states with the worst open carry laws whine to Kroger. Oh that is just laughable.
Now Kroger does own Foodsco in CA, as a division of Kroger, but no actual “Kroger” stores.
Really I hope they ignore this letter, or tell them to stuff it. Either way this seems to be the last straw in the fight with MDA. All the other stores responded with a non response quickly to get them off their backs. It seems Kroger would rather stay in line with it’s original stance and let MDA and co. Burn itself out.

“Gun extremists in several states have exploited the current Kroger policy by flaunting assault rifles as they shopped,” the senators wrote in their open letter to the Kroger CEO.

My thought is that it is the “gun grabbers” that are doing this to put law-abiding, gun owning citizens in a bad light! Every one I know that carries, does so discreetly. Even an “open carry” can be done with good taste. I truly believe this is a setup!

So, they are escalating this, as expected. No one cares about AK-47’s in stores, it’s just too rare an occurrence. Kroger stands in the way of their pursuit of the eventual abolition of shall issue carry, open or concealed. That’s why they are not taking no for an answer, it would break their momentum.

I don’t live in Ohio anymore, but my parents do, and they’ve recently become gun owners. There’s a Krogers just down the road from them, they tend to shop there regularly. I’m sure they’ll express their appreciation to the manager for not being anti-gun.

Hey you 3 senators!!!!!
STFU and try to take care of the more important things going on in our daily lives.
Like the little things going on in the Middle East.
Stop telling a legally owned and privately operated business how they should be run already.
Its none of your darned concerns.
Since you cant take care of the countries business.
Why in h3ll don’t you leave Krogers alone and try doing what you were elected to do already.

I love in Connectixut, where two of those three nannies come from. Based on a zip code check on Kroeger’s web site, the closest store to CT is in S Carolina. So from where, beside arrogance and being members of the ruling elite, do Murphy and Blumie get off making demands of a chain with no representation in their state?

I don’t need an AK-47 assault rifle to go shopping- an AR-15 semi-automatic modern sporting rifle is good enough for me. My state allows me to open-carry a (legally registered with the BATFE) AK-47 assault rifle if I so choose, however, and preempts any city ordnance trying to restrict my RKBA.

MDA/MAIG is about to lose one of their attempts to bully/harass a private company. They are afraid that if they lose one time, then every subsequent attempt will also fail. The companies will see that they can face down MDA and not suffer for it. The gun control complex can’t let that happen. So they are calling in every resource they have to try and win this conflict.

Stand strong, Kroger’s and all your subsidiaries. You will win, and MDA will lose.

I predict that MDA will dissolve or get a new name with a new leader (goodbye, Shannon) before the year is over. Michael Bloomberg is losing more battles than he is winning lately. The tide is turning.

In more and more parts of the country, the idea of gun control is slowly dying under the weight of all their lies. Because “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”

Thank you for the opportunity to explain our Policy. As you are lawmakers and drafter of the law, it should be no surprise to you that we as a Corp follow the law[s] and direct each store to follow their states laws accordingly.

As a Corp we detest the actions of the listed stores that have been bullied to offer symbolic request to prohibit “open carry”.

Your reference to “gun extremists” implies that they were in violation of the laws of those states. When in reality they were well with in their rights according to their states laws. And using words like; extremist, exploited, bizarre, & terrifying are a veiled attempt to conflate the issue[s] of which Kroger’s has no stake in.

Your reference to “bizarre displays” has us puzzled. What is bizarre to one is normal behavior to others. Again as long as they were with in the laws of their states this is no concern of Kroger.

Kroger’s is a leader in the grocery business by being very good at what we do which is groceries, and until a few months ago this [open carry] was a non issue. As our stated policy is to follow the federal, states & local laws it would seem that any one that has a problem with “open carry” should consult their lawmakers to affect a change in their laws. Instead of “urging” (I.E. bullying) businesses that are simply following local and state and fed laws.

Senator[s], thank you for sending this “request” about our policies. We are very glad that all the other problems that are plaguing this country have been dealt with, for you to be worrying about an issue that affects approx.000003% of the population of this country.

Again just so we are clear about Kroger’s policy, our stores follow Fed, State & Local laws concerning open carry! Anything above and beyond that must be handled with you the lawmakers as it should be or simply left alone as there will be no winners in this affair!

Open carry is going to be the death of us all as carriers. I think its stupid as hell. I can understand why people don’t like it. Once all these stores buckle to the pressure running around town shopping is going to be a matter of leaving the gun in the glove box if you are going to respect their property rights.

I am a lifelong advocate of the ownership of firearms. IRRESPONSIBLE OPEN CARRY is what is what is going to be the death of us all as carriers. I am beginning to wonder if these “open carry” demonstrators are not actually anti-gunners. If a person wants to demonstrate for “open carry” why don’t they choose a sidearm instead of a rifle? Rifles, principally, are for long(er) range use than what a person would need (self defense purposes) for any type of shopping so what is the point of having them on your person anyway? They are also considered a weapon for offensive, not defensive, purposes. Sidearms, even with open carry, are a lot less noticeable and objectionable to most people. As a CCW, I have been in many stores that were posted but not a soul was aware of the fact that I was carrying

am a lifelong advocate of the ownership of firearms. IRRESPONSIBLE OPEN CARRY is what is what is going to be the death of us all as carriers.

Please define “irresponsible open carry”? Is it all open carry? Open carry of long guns? Open carry of guns in the hand? Open carry in the wrong place? Open carry at the wrong time?

What do you mean, specifically, when you say “irresponsible open carry”?

I am beginning to wonder if these “open carry” demonstrators are not actually anti-gunners. If a person wants to demonstrate for “open carry” why don’t they choose a sidearm instead of a rifle?

So, can I assume that you consider any and all open carry of long guns as “irresponsible open carry”? Sucks to be a Texan (or an 18-20 year old resident of several other States), I guess?

Rifles, principally, are for long(er) range use than what a person would need (self defense purposes) for any type of shopping so what is the point of having them on your person anyway?

Why does the lawful exercise of a right require an articulated need? Whose permission or acceptance is required to exercise the right to keep and bear arms, and what other fundamental rights require such permission or acceptance?

They are also considered a weapon for offensive, not defensive, purposes.

Say what?

Sidearms, even with open carry, are a lot less noticeable and objectionable to most people.

So, open carry that is “objectionable to others” falls under “irresponsible open carry”? How then do we handle the people who find all personal possession or carrying of any firearms, hand gun or long gun, open or concealed, to be objectionable? And for what other fundamental rights is it considered “irresponsible” to exercise in the presence of others who find such lawful exercise to be “objectionable”?

As a CCW, I have been in many stores that were posted but not a soul was aware of the fact that I was carrying

In some (though not all) states, your actions would be unlawful. Were your actions “responsible” carry?

My comments were in regard to the post I answered. Common sense should prevail but I realize not all people have possession of it. If the Founders of the United States made a major error in their founding documents it would have to be they assumed a majority of the future U.S. citizens would be logical. Most of your objections were covered in my initial post. BTW, I am now retired but I was formerly a LEO so I have a pretty good idea of what is acceptable and what is not where the law is concerned

So the TL;DR version is: you don’t really have a cogent response, so resort to “lack of common sense” ad hominem.

Speaking of the Founding Fathers: just out of curiosity, what was the prevalent method of carry at the time they wrote the Constitution, and what was the prevailing perception of anyone who used the alternate means of carry?

Open carry of long guns is a lawful activity. The animosity supposed gun-rights advocates express toward those who choose to exercise RKBA by lawfully open-carrying long guns isn’t really any different from the animosity the overt gun-control advocates express toward all of us.

Glad you brought up the issue about the weapons of the Founding Fathers. Yes, the rifle in its various versions was the primary weapon of the Revolutionary War era. At that time, one could never be sure what a particular situation would be so the rifle was the primary answer to whenever a firearm might be required. Today, a rifle is more than a little out of place when one is pushing a cart in a supermarket ( et. al. ). I have no problem with open carry, I have done it quite a bit in my lifetime. Yes, open carry of long guns is a lawful activity. However, in an enclosed, short range environment such as a store in shopping center, a pistol is more preferable. It is less cumbersome to carry, quicker to access and attracts less attention from “nervous nellies”, be they male or female ( although I really don’t give a sh*t what anyone thinks about my carry except for the fact that a few will push for a complete ban on firearms. Should a hostage situation requiring a SWAT team occur then I give the nod to a long gun.

Yes, open carry of long guns is a lawful activity. However, in an enclosed, short range environment such as a store in shopping center, a pistol is more preferable. It is less cumbersome to carry, quicker to access and attracts less attention from “nervous nellies”, be they male or female…

Okay, but you’re talking about the strategic/tactical reasons you and I choose to carry (in my case, concealed handgun). Just as I prefer to be left alone lawfully to exercise RKBA in the manner of my choosing, I support the right of long gun open carriers to be left alone lawfully to exercise RBKA in the manner they choose.

…( although I really don’t give a sh*t what anyone thinks about my carry except for the fact that a few will push for a complete ban on firearms.

Those people will push for a complete ban on firearms, regardless of what we do, because that is and has always been their ultimate objective. So why should anything we do serve as a capitulation to such people?

I don’t have a Kroger locally, however I travel with my job and have made it a habit to go out of my way to shop there as well as purchase gas. I have even driven past other stations to fuel at Kroger because the support my rights. I will continue to support them as long as they maintain their stand.
Kroger- keep up the great work and stay strong.

Anti-gun campaign is not interested in any facts as the facts of history are contrary to their campaign.

The anti-gun campaign is based on the imaginary situation the USA had never armed its citizens. They do hate any gun of any type and want them eradicated. They have zero interest in what is rational and logical. Total control with total government dependance is the goal of the anti-gun campaign.